History Main / CommonTongue

* Invoked in ''Manga/UndeadUnluck'' when all the langauges in the world are changed to English, effecting everyone except Negators. This allows them to locate other Negators as they would be able to speak other langauges.

*** As a side note, until the early 19th century you heard more Arabic than Latin in medical schools in Europe, the reason being that most actually useful medical texts were written in either Greek or Arabic, and it was considered imperative for a doctor to be able to read Avicenna in the original language.

* As part of the legacy of the conquests of UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat, Greek used to be pervasive in the Middle East, to the point where even the Tanakh (AKA the Hebrew [[Literature/TheBible Bible]]) was translated into it so that it could be understood by Hellenized Jews; this translation, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint Septuagint]], is one of the major influences on the Christian Bible and is also a useful guide for scholars of Jewish history. Hellenistic Greek is actually the Trope Co-Namer, as its most basic and used variety was known as ''Koine Dialektos'' (literally, the Common Tongue). Koine Greek is also the original language used to write the New Testament; the idea was to capture as much audience as possible in the Eastern Mediterranean.

* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' of Creator/AAPessimal builds on the canonical Discworld, which has elements of the out-and-out fantastic fantasy world, but which as it evolved grew to be a rough one-for-one mapping of real Earth nations, ethnicities and languages overlaid on Pratchett's fantasy map. Pessimal acknowledges the canonical fact that Morporkian (English) is the pre-eminent dominant tongue and in many places is supplanting the native languages. [[UsefulNotes/{{France}} Quirm]] is so near Ankh-Morpork, for instance, with no separating body of water, that Quirmian is actually in danger of being supplanted by Morporkian as a spoken everyday language; on the other side, again with no intervening North Sea, [[UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}} Phlegmish]] and [[UsefulNotes/TheNetherlands Kerrigian]] are also being supplanted. The analogy is how Gaelic in Scotland and Ireland and Welsh in Wales were quite simply drowned out and swamped on the British Isles by English. however, Quirmian thrives in [[CanadaEh former colonies around the Disc]] as a living language, as does [[UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica a Howondalandian language closely related to its parent tongue in the Sto Plains]]. Indeed, [[UsefulNotes/TheNetherlands Kerrigian]] used to be spoken all the way from the Sto Plains to the port city of Chirm on the coast of the Circle Sea[[note]]The port of departure for emigrants to [[UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica Howondaland]][[/note]] - but has now retreated to its heartland, under the pressure of Morporkian. Elsewhere, Agatean [[note]]Chinese, Japanese, perhaps Thai and Korean - all four countries are portmanteau'd as "Agatea"[[/note]] and Klatchian[[note]]Arabic - mainly. Turkish and Urdu/Punjabi have their referents in Tsort, Muntab and Ghat[[/note]] are possibly the only widely-spoken rivals to Morporkian, although [[UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} Far Uberwaldean]], spoken a long way from the central plains, is a potential rival.

* Played with in ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'', there are three "trade languages" that characters can expect at least one person in a given rural village can speak, though most might not outside the language's native land or at least a major city. High Realm is the language of the Realm's nobles, [[ClassicalLanguage Old Realm]] was spoken by the previous major empire and is still spoken by spirits and demons, and Riverspeak is used in the Scavenger Lands and by the Guild.

** There is Basic, the language of the Galactic Republic. Nearly everyone understands it, even aliens that lack the ability to speak it. Likewise, most aliens have one language that they speak constantly. Interestingly, multilingualism is quite common -- Han, for example, speaks Huttese, Wookiee (though he sounds really stupid when he tries), and Rodian.

Usually called [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings the Common Speech/Tongue]], or simply [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons Common]] or [[Franchise/StarWars Basic]], this is a baseline language that is used by the vast majority of the setting. Oftentimes, it is the human language, since humans are almost always the most widespread race, and other races will have their own "Common" language that all their members speak. All dwarves will speak Dwarven, all elves Elven (or Elvish) and so on.

This makes communication difficult. So, many speculative fiction writers use a shortcut: having everybody speak the same language, which can be through a single native tongue for everyone; or as it happens in our present day, a ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingua_franca lingua franca]]'' that many people learn as a second language.

If you are not a native English speaker, you are currently experiencing this trope as TruthInTelevision by reading this page, as English is today's ''de facto'' global language throughout the entire world. It's so global that, despite being the 4th-most spoken native language in the world, it still has more second-language speakers than first-language ones. On a more local level this happens with [[UsefulNotes/SpanishLanguage Spanish]] and [[UsefulNotes/PortugueseLanguage Portuguese]] in Latin America; English or [[UsefulNotes/FrenchLanguage French]] in mainland Europe; English or French in different parts of Africa; Russian in Central Asia; [[UsefulNotes/ArabicLanguage Arabic]] (and, to a lesser extent, Farsi) in the Middle East; [[UsefulNotes/ChineseLanguage Mandarin Chinese]] and Hindi in East Asia; and English in South/Southeast Asia and Oceania. Essentially most were forced to use the language of whatever big neighbor conquered or colonized them, and it persisted post-independence. [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg Oh yeah,]] and [[GratuitousLatin Latin]] used to be one (ever wondered why most of continental Western Europe speaks a bunch of closely-related languages?).

* ''Franchise/{{Dune}}'' has Galach, derived from English mixed with some Slavic languages and a smattering of other Old Earth tongues. But there are many other languages such as the Chakobsa hunting speech of which a dialect is spoken by the Fremen, and the Atreides battle language that is [[UsefulNotes/SignedLanguages signed]] (so enemies can't overhear) instead of spoken.

* Andarra and Desriel share a language in ''Literature/TheLicaniusTrilogy'', with a few unique words here and there. The latter is actually an offshoot of the former, so it's {{Justified}}.

* The First Federation of ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' attempted to standardize "Anglic", but once the Feds lost power Anglic evolved into a family of languages several times more diverse than the current Indo-European family. The prevalence of TranslatorMicrobes in the setting makes it a moot point anyway.

** High level programming languages are this by design, since they allow a program to be written once and then compiled to work on all sorts of different architectures. Prior to the use of these languages, programs were written in assembly language that was specific to different machines, necessitating that they be entirely rewritten for each target platform.